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It’s good to use alternative routes when traveling

Bill EllzeyColumnist

Published: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 3:25 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 3:25 p.m.

Nearly three weeks into hurricane season, and so far the seriously bad weather has been well to our east — or in killer tornadoes well to our north. But determined to practice some of the evacuation preparations I regularly preach, we detoured Friday off the route we usually take to reach Interstate 10 at Lafayette.

Ordinarily, heading for the Ellzey farm in Natchitoches Parish, we use U.S. 90 to Lafayette, then Interstate 49 on toward Natchitoches. When we reach La. 6, we turn west onto a network of increasingly rural roads.

It’s the destination we would use for a storm evacuation. We have “permanent storm reservations” with my brother who resides in the old family home. The lodging part of our evacuations is settled.

But our usual U.S. 90-I-49 path for getting there also will be a major hurricane evacuation route, and it’s bound to clog up quickly with other coastal evacuees.

The alternative, the La. 1 corridor, is a longer way to reach our same destination, and it is likely to be just as full of evacuating crowds.

Choices: Between Houma and New Iberia, U.S. 90 has no practical alternatives, but Friday we tried taking La. 14 westward to Erath, where we turned north on La. 339, heading for I-10 near the town of Scott. Had we been going on to Natchitoches, we could have chosen from a number of less-traveled roads for the rest of the trip.

We quickly discovered that La. 339 took us directly to Ambassador Caffery Parkway, which was basically a Friday afternoon parking lot. Happy that we discovered the flaw in this route when we were not in a hurry, we intend next to try La. 13 or some other less busy path to I-10 and points beyond.

Juneteenth in Texas: Our final weekend destination was not Natchitoches, anyway, but Texas City, Texas, itself a less pricey alternative to Galveston Island hotels in June. We saw comic actor Jaston Williams in a one-man show based on his boyhood, on stage at Galveston’s 1894 Opera House, a favorite weekend destination of ours.

And, as luck would have it, we enjoyed visiting with four musicians who had flown in from California to perform in Texas City’s celebration of “Juneteenth.” We weren’t properly introduced, but the graying quartet were clearly professional musicians, rejoining as a group for the occasion.

Our “opera house” reservations conflicted with their performance, but they clearly enjoyed reminiscing over careers as musicians.

Juneteenth is a prominent celebration in Texas where it commemorates “Emancipation Day,” originally June 19, when the Civil War ended slavery.

Not Tuna: Jaston Williams’ one-man performance of “Blame it on Valentine, Texas,” was fun, but without ailing sidekick Joe Sears, who with Williams created and performed the “Tuna Texas” two-man plays for about 30 years, it was not quite as magical. Too much introspection, whatever that is.

Return trip: Our fairly frequent trips to and from Galveston generally avoid interstates as much as possible. Instead of traveling four-lane to I-10 at Lafayette for a four-lane drive the rest of the way to Galveston, we leave U.S. 90 for narrower La. 14 to Lake Charles, then leave I-10 again at Winnie, Texas, for a two-lane coastal drive to the auto ferry from Port Bolivar to Galveston Island.

This trip was mixed, and it made full use of La. 14 returning, swapping speed for tamer traffic.

<p>Nearly three weeks into hurricane season, and so far the seriously bad weather has been well to our east — or in killer tornadoes well to our north. But determined to practice some of the evacuation preparations I regularly preach, we detoured Friday off the route we usually take to reach Interstate 10 at Lafayette.</p><p>Ordinarily, heading for the Ellzey farm in Natchitoches Parish, we use U.S. 90 to Lafayette, then Interstate 49 on toward Natchitoches. When we reach La. 6, we turn west onto a network of increasingly rural roads.</p><p>It's the destination we would use for a storm evacuation. We have “permanent storm reservations” with my brother who resides in the old family home. The lodging part of our evacuations is settled.</p><p>But our usual U.S. 90-I-49 path for getting there also will be a major hurricane evacuation route, and it's bound to clog up quickly with other coastal evacuees. </p><p>The alternative, the La. 1 corridor, is a longer way to reach our same destination, and it is likely to be just as full of evacuating crowds.</p><p>Choices: Between Houma and New Iberia, U.S. 90 has no practical alternatives, but Friday we tried taking La. 14 westward to Erath, where we turned north on La. 339, heading for I-10 near the town of Scott. Had we been going on to Natchitoches, we could have chosen from a number of less-traveled roads for the rest of the trip.</p><p>We quickly discovered that La. 339 took us directly to Ambassador Caffery Parkway, which was basically a Friday afternoon parking lot. Happy that we discovered the flaw in this route when we were not in a hurry, we intend next to try La. 13 or some other less busy path to I-10 and points beyond.</p><p>Juneteenth in Texas: Our final weekend destination was not Natchitoches, anyway, but Texas City, Texas, itself a less pricey alternative to Galveston Island hotels in June. We saw comic actor Jaston Williams in a one-man show based on his boyhood, on stage at Galveston's 1894 Opera House, a favorite weekend destination of ours.</p><p>And, as luck would have it, we enjoyed visiting with four musicians who had flown in from California to perform in Texas City's celebration of “Juneteenth.” We weren't properly introduced, but the graying quartet were clearly professional musicians, rejoining as a group for the occasion.</p><p>Our “opera house” reservations conflicted with their performance, but they clearly enjoyed reminiscing over careers as musicians. </p><p>Juneteenth is a prominent celebration in Texas where it commemorates “Emancipation Day,” originally June 19, when the Civil War ended slavery.</p><p>Not Tuna: Jaston Williams' one-man performance of “Blame it on Valentine, Texas,” was fun, but without ailing sidekick Joe Sears, who with Williams created and performed the “Tuna Texas” two-man plays for about 30 years, it was not quite as magical. Too much introspection, whatever that is.</p><p>Return trip: Our fairly frequent trips to and from Galveston generally avoid interstates as much as possible. Instead of traveling four-lane to I-10 at Lafayette for a four-lane drive the rest of the way to Galveston, we leave U.S. 90 for narrower La. 14 to Lake Charles, then leave I-10 again at Winnie, Texas, for a two-lane coastal drive to the auto ferry from Port Bolivar to Galveston Island.</p><p>This trip was mixed, and it made full use of La. 14 returning, swapping speed for tamer traffic.</p><p>Responding? Contact Bill Ellzey at 381-6256, bill-ellzey@att.net, billellzey312@gmail.com or c/o The Courier, P.O. Box 2717, Houma, LA 70361.</p>